5 Awesome Performances...
5. Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom - Con Air
Though it doesn't require as deep a performance as the higher entries on this list, there's still little doubting the sheer intense menace of Malkovich in Con Air, playing hardened criminal Cyrus "The Virus" Grissom, who ends up inciting a riot aboard the Jailbird, taking control of the plane in an attempt to flee his prisoner transfer. Though sharing the screen with actors well-versed at playing freaks and nutjobs - Steve Buscemi and Danny Trejo, for instance - Malkovich rises above all others as the savagely brutal, unforgiving psychopath who wants to escape by any means necessary. His terrifying demeanour is best realised when he holds a gun to Poe's (Nicolas Cage) head and utters the words, "Before I kill you, Poe. I just wanted you to know the last thing that little Casey Poe ever gets to smell will be
my stinking breath!" He plays the part as perfectly lurid and creepy as can be imagined, making his grim demise at the end - being crushed to death - all that more satisfying.